Technical Field
The present invention wholly relates to the technical field of medical care facilities, and in particular, to a notification system that can be laid flat on a proper position of a sickbed to know patient's statuses in the bed at any time by the body weight of a patient; and to predict and judge, according to the patient's statuses in the bed, whether the patient intends to get out of bed.
Background
As medical techniques and technologies dramatically develop, human lifespan is prolonged a lot. However, while the lifespan is prolonged, the chance of illness increases a lot accordingly. Although modern medicine can overcome most diseases and gives patients a healthy body, the patients must eventually undergo a medical process before recovering.
In facing relatively serious or complicated illness conditions, some patients have to be on bed rest to receive medical treatment or observation, and definitely, a few patients have difficulty in getting up alone or even are unable to do so. Further, there also exist a minority of patients who are able to take care of themselves but still need assistance or observation from nursing staff or medical staff. Therefore, the workload of the nursing staff or medical staff becomes increasing heavy. Moreover, from the perspective of an increasingly extensive and long-lasting course, use of only technological medical equipment fails to effectively reduce the demands for the number and the workload of the nursing staff.
It has been pointed out by related follow-up study in Taiwan that, the ratio of patients to nurses in Taiwan's regional or above hospitals is 12:1 during the years from 2006 to 2007. Moreover, due to the social pattern characterized by rapid population aging, it can be predicted that there will be increasingly more bedridden patients and the time cost in the sickbed also significantly increases. Therefore, the demands for the number and the workload of nursing staff also significantly grow. During the care of mentally retarded patients who act freely but have confused consciousness, or patients who have physical and mental dysfunction and require caregivers' accompaniment, the caregiver always worries that the patient leaves the sickbed alone or drops from the sickbed to cause accidental damage. When the patient drops from the sickbed or tumbles after leaving the sickbed, an adverse consequence such as severe harm or even death may be incurred if the caregiver fails to immediately handle such situations in the first place.
Taiwan utility model patent (certification NO.: M465634) No. 102207861 that has been published discloses “Protective Alert device for Sickbed”, the sickbed having a bed surface for supporting the human body, a front end portion closed to the head of the human body, and a rear end portion closed to the feet. The protective alert device includes: a carrier configured on the sickbed; a light sensitive unit, mounted on the carrier and forming a height difference with the bed surface of the sickbed, and used to receive light rays along a sickbed short-side direction within a sensing range not larger than the length of the sickbed short side; and an alarm unit, electrically connected to the light sensitive unit and used to generate a warning signal when the light rays in the sensing range have a change.
In the foregoing first former invention, limited to the sickbed short-side direction, the sensing range can be extended to the whole sickbed with reduced dead angles, thus achieving a protection effect. However, this former invention cannot sense patient's statuses in bed, and further cannot predict and judge whether the patient intends to get out of bed. When the patient drops from the sickbed or tumbles after leaving the bed, an adverse consequence such as severe harm or even death can be avoided if a caregiver makes prevention in advance.
Taiwan utility model patent (certification NO.: M447769) No. 101219854 that has been published discloses “Sickbed for Sensing Patient's Action of Leaving Bed”, where the sickbed includes: a bedstead having at least one off-bed side; a detection module including a plurality of detection units arranged on the bedstead, each detection unit being able to send out a warning signal when sensing that the patient's body passes through the off-bedside; a processing module, connected to the sensing units of the sensing module via a signal and capable of receiving and processing the warning signals sent by the detection units, the processing module further sending out an off-bed signal when simultaneously receiving multiple warning signals; and an alert module, connected to the processing module via a signal and capable of sending out an alert signal when driven by the off-bed signal.
In the foregoing second former invention, the detection units can send out a warning signal when the patient leaves the bed, such that the nursing staff are timely informed and then immediately go to the ward to take care of the patient. However, this former invention cannot sense patient's statuses in bed, and further cannot predict and judge whether the patient intends to get out of bed. When the patient drops from the sickbed or tumbles after leaving the bed, an adverse consequence such as severe harm or even death can be avoided if the caregiver makes prevention in advance.
Therefore, it is necessary to solve the foregoing problems so as to avoid accidents and reduce the manpower, costs, and time. In view of the defects in the prior art, the applicants finally conceive the present invention through careful experimentation and research with perseverance, to overcome the defects in the prior art.